


A Hero's Promise

by caterinawrites



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrinette, F/M, Identity reveal fic, Reveal, ladrien, lucky charm zine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:27:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26980627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caterinawrites/pseuds/caterinawrites
Summary: When Marinette finds herself in a dire situation with Adrien, she has no choice but to transform and save them both. Will Adrien keep her secret, or will Marinette's identity be revealed for good?
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 14
Kudos: 387





	A Hero's Promise

**Author's Note:**

> I was asked to pinch-hit the Lucky Charm zine this summer, and the theme this round was reveals. I had a lot of fun writing this piece, and when I was brainstorming I was like hmmm how can I include Ladrien because it was Ladrien June at the time, and I am a weak bitch for Ladrien. So, I hope you all enjoy! Be sure to follow the zine tumblr and support the whole thing because there are so many wonderfully talented people involved, and I was very humbled that they asked me to pinch-hit.

“Okay, girl, no chickening out this time,” Alya said.

The class had taken a field trip that afternoon, and as was customary any time the opportunity presented itself, Alya and Marinette had a plan to get closer to Adrien. It was a simple plan really, one that even Marinette couldn’t mess up. All she had to do was stand beside him on the tour and talk. Easy.

“What if I mix up my words again?” Marinette whispered as they trailed several paces behind Adrien and Nino.

“Just keep going. Adrien has heard you stammer a million times by now. Take deep breaths. I’m gonna distract Nino.” Alya patted Marinette’s cheeks before striding over to link her arm through her boyfriend’s. 

“Adrien, do you mind if I steal Nino for a while?” She asked, batting her eyelashes, and Marinette wished she had a fraction of her confidence.

“Not at all, Alya,” Adrien said, and Marinette saw her opening. 

She could do this. The field trip was only a couple hours, and if she played her cards right, he’d fall in love with her then one day they’d get married, have three kids and a hamster named-

“Adrikins!” Chloe cooed, shoving Marinette out of the way and latching onto his arm. “Look at my new manicure!”

“Uh, that’s great, Chlo,” he said, sounding every bit as unenthused as he looked. 

Marinette glanced at Alya who motioned for her to step in, but at her panicked expression, Alya slapped a palm to her forehead. She’d messed up and chickened out  _ again _ . Maybe she should give up on love and move to the countryside and become a beekeeper. She could totally be a beekeeper. 

“Hey, Chloe, I think I saw Sabrina refilling your water bottle from the tap,” Alya called, and Chloe stopped in her tracks.

“She  _ what _ ?” Chloe gasped. “If she thinks I’m going to drink tap water, she has got another thing coming. Sabrina!”

As Chloe stormed off, Alya nodded toward Adrien, and Marinette took a deep breath. She could do this. It was only two hours and the rest of their lives. All she needed to do was just talk-

A loud crash sounded several floors above them, shaking the building, and Marinette braced herself as the windows shattered. As people ran screaming, Mlle. Bustier barked orders from the front of the line, urging students to safety. 

Marinette threw her head back with a sigh. Did Hawkmoth need to pick right now to create an akuma? Did he have a radar that went off every time she was about to make headway with Adrien? Nevertheless, duty called. 

Using the chaos as cover, she slipped away from the group and ran the other way toward the stairwell, but as it turned out, the stairs weren’t as private as she originally thought. Throwing open the door, she crashed into another person, toppling them both to the floor, and as she sat up, she found herself staring into two green eyes wincing under a mop of blond hair. 

“A-Adrien!” She jerked back several feet. “I’m so sorry! I was just, uh, trying to run away from the akuma, and-”

“It’s fine. You okay?” He asked, offering a hand to help her up. Always the gentleman even if she did completely knock him over and ram her head into his chin. 

“Yeah, you?” She asked, and he rubbed his jaw with a shrug.

“I’ve had worse,” he said. “We should probably get out of here.”

“Uh, right. We should,” Marinette said, sparing a glance at her purse. 

They jumped at the loud crash in the hall, but both stood frozen on the platform. Marinette needed to get away and transform, but she didn’t have a viable excuse to ditch Adrien. Luckily for her, he took the lead, tugging her down to the next level.

“We can hide out until the akuma passes then make our escape,” he said, ducking into the door one flight below. 

“Uh, right,” she said, hoping her voice didn’t betray her lack of enthusiasm. 

She glanced around the room, searching the rows of cubicles for any means of escape. Never in her life did she think she’d be desperate to get away from Adrien, but now wasn’t the time for snuggling. Paris needed Ladybug, so her love life would have to wait. 

Large windows spanned the far side of the room. Several had shattered from whatever attack the akuma launched, and hanging just on the other side was their ticket out of there. 

“Look!” She tugged his sleeve. “A window washer’s scaffold. We can get down with that.”

“Whoa, good thinking, Marinette,” he said, rushing over and clearing away broken shards with his foot. 

He climbed in first then offered her a hand, and she tried not to think about how much hand-holding this excursion had come with. She hit the button on the control panel, breath hitching as it started to lower. Freedom was only a few minutes away, that is, until a desk flew through a window and sliced the wires. 

Adrien pulled her close as they dropped six stories before the scaffold jerked to a stop, and they flung apart, scrambling to right themselves as it swung. They were still ten stories up, but from the looks of the wires, they weren’t going to be for much longer. 

“Are you okay?” Adrien asked, attempting to reach for her, but the scaffold shook and rocked.

“Don’t move!” She gasped, shifting her weight to counteract his. “We need to figure out a way down.”

“Maybe we should just wait for Ladybug,” Adrien suggested, and she glanced down at her purse with a wince.

“I don’t think we’ve got time,” she said, nodding at the fraying wire. 

“What are we going to do?” He asked.

Marinette surveyed their surroundings, searching for anything to add time or get them out safely, but their options were slim. Any sudden movement would likely send them plummeting to the ground, and even if they did nothing, it wasn’t long before the scaffold gave out under their weight. There was only one way out, and she didn’t have another choice.

The scaffold groaned, and Marinette lunged at Adrien as the wire snapped, wrapping her arms around his waist as her suit materialized. Her yoyo hooked around a beam as the scaffold crashed to the ground. When she glanced back at Adrien, his eyes were wide which was only natural seeing as she’d inadvertently told him the most important secret in the world. 

“You’re-”

“I know,” she said, lowering them to safety. “And you can’t tell anyone.”

“No, yeah, sure, but you’re really her?” He looked her up and down with awe. 

“Uh, yeah,” she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “No one should know who I really am, but we didn’t have another choice. I’m trusting you, Adrien.”

His gaze found hers, a soft smile curling on his lips. “I won’t tell anyone. Your secret is safe with me. Promise.”

Her cheeks warmed, but there was no time for flirting. She palmed her yoyo, taking a few steps back. “Find somewhere safe to hide, okay?”

“Ladybug, wait!” He called as she tossed her yoyo up the street, and she turned over her shoulder. “Uh, I- come by my house later.”

“Okay,” she said, and when he nodded her on, she tugged the slack and shot off. 

Chat Noir arrived on the scene the same time she did, and she hoped that her expression didn’t betray her guilt. There wasn’t another option. It was a fact she repeated to herself that day as they captured the akuma. As the city returned to normal. As she and Adrien exchanged curt nods on the bus, her secret passing unspoken between them.

She wasn’t sure how to feel knowing that someone knew her identity now, or that this  _ particular _ someone knew her identity. Of course it was dangerous and wrong, and it never should have happened, but she did her best to see the positives. She finally had someone other than Tikki to tell about her double life. Even better that someone was the boy she was in love with which gave her more excuses to talk to him, and being a superhero didn’t exactly hurt her chances at impressing him either. A little late-night tour of the city from the rooftops and-

What was she thinking? This was bad! Adrien knew her identity. Should she go into hiding? Stop being Ladybug? Maybe she could make Chat Noir the new guardian and lose all of her memories. But what if the new Ladybug failed, and she had no memories to help stop Hawkmoth then it would be all her fault for exposing herself, and Paris would be doomed and-

“You okay, girl?” Alya snapped her out of a downward spiral, and she removed her nubs of fingernails from her mouth.

“Uh, yeah, just thinking about how I messed up with Adrien earlier,” she said, plastering on a smile.

“Aww, don’t worry. You’ll get him next time,” Alya said, draping an arm over her shoulder, and Marinette let out a breath. 

“Yeah…”

***

Adrien’s window was open when she arrived later that night, her stomach churning as she hesitantly lowered into view. He paced the length of his couch, looking up when she appeared. Their eyes locked, both staring until Ladybug gestured to the floor.

“Can I come in?” She asked, and he nodded, moving around the couch to meet her. 

Silence stretched between them, and Ladybug drummed her fingers on her yoyo, heart threatening to beat out of her chest as Adrien ran a hand over the back of his neck. What exactly did one say in this situation? Should she play it cool? Crack a joke? Beg him not to tell anyone? There wasn’t exactly a training course on what to do if you expose your secret identity. 

“Um,” he finally managed, and her eyes flicked up to his. “Thank you for saving me earlier.”

“Oh, yeah, no problem,” she said. “I mean, after all, it is my job.”

“Right, of course.” Adrien nodded, and the silence resumed. They both shifted, the tension between them stretching until the pressure snapped like a rubber band. Words spilled out like rapids, one stream overlapping the other.

“Listen, I know that we can’t undo what happened, and I know that you won’t tell anyone because you’re so trustworthy and cute-- wait did I say that out loud?” Ladybug said as Adrien rambled just as awkwardly.

“I’m really sorry that you had to tell me your identity like that, and I promise not to tell anyone. I’d never betray you like that ever, and I feel really bad that you had to be the one to reveal your identity,” Adrien said, their words mixing until they both clamped hands over their mouths. 

Adrien pressed his lips together, determination glinting in his green eyes. 

“I feel like it’s only fair that I tell you because it’s important to me that you know you can always trust me,” he said, taking a step forward. “You weren’t the only one who could have gotten us out of that situation. In another couple seconds, I would have transformed to save us both too.” Lifting her hand to his lips, he continued, “I’m sorry, m’lady. I guess now the cat’s out of the bag.”

“But- you-” A devilish smile curled on his lips, and as the two halves of his persona clicked together, Ladybug threw her arms around his neck. “It’s you.”

“I’m really sorry, bugaboo,” he murmured against her shoulder. “I should have acted sooner.”

“Even if you had, I would have known your identity. There was no way around it,” she said, pulling away. “We can’t change what happened, but we do need to talk about what to do now. Knowing our identities while Hawkmoth is still out there is dangerous. If one of us gets akumatized…”

“I know,” Adrien said, lowering his gaze. “This isn’t exactly what I was expecting when I dreamed of finding out who you really are. I hoped that I’d single handedly take down Hawkmoth and impress you so much you’d fall in love with me.”

She smiled at that, brushing his nose with her finger. “What should we do? Should we stop being Ladybug and Chat Noir?”

“What? No!” His eyes widened in horror. “Look, there’s no one I trust more than you, and I think we make a pretty awesome team. Besides, who knows, maybe this is for the best. Maybe we’ll be stronger and more united. We can have each other’s backs all the time.”

When she didn’t seem convinced, he added, “We’re the cat and bug team, remember?” He said, and at her stern expression, he corrected, “Fine, the bug and cat team.”

“Okay,” she said, taking a breath. “I trust you, and we both agreed when we took on our Miraculouses to keep the city safe. We can’t turn back on that promise now.”

“You and me against the world?” Adrien said, holding out a fist. 

Ladybug looked him up and down, a smile curling on her lips as she touched her fist to his.

“As always.”


End file.
